Use of the word straight. Just as offensive?

[Taizan]

The whole 'straight/gay?' issue is just another attempt to classify anyone, and make them easily identifiable with a social norm.

After all, if you had a really good friend who you thought was gay, what would your reaction be if you found out they weren't? If you had any sense, then it shouldn't matter.

That's my contribution to the matter!

 

[The Dr0w Ranger]

Here's where I get flamed, but I must, so I will.

1st, as stated above, the is a definite Bias against Anal sex in the Male community, since for a straight man(I said it!), there can be no more humiliating, painful, boner dropping thing, then rectal penetration.

2nd, it is STILL not natural, I dare anyone to prove me wrong, that humanity is intended to reproduce through buttsex. So using a word that describes an unnatural act, to describe something else as wrong bad or unnatural, is possibly offensive, but not necessarily wrong.

3rd, some of us have religious beliefs that state in a clear and concise fashion that homosexuality is wrong. I am one of them, this does not make me a Homophobe, but I do believe the acts are wrong.

Anyway, I have gay friends, and I don't tend to make gay jokes, or use the term around them, it makes things uncomfortable, but I still say it isn't wrong.

Also, who here(not gay) has never EVER called a straight friend a fag when he starts making fun of your mom or W/E?

Just pointing out logic failures.

 

[omicronpercei]

Okay, is it safe to say that society is taking political correctness a bit too far. When we are taking phrases we've used for years and re-evaluating them and saying to ourselves, "Well if straight means OK, does that mean gay means bad and does that mean I shouldn't say it?" WHO CARES!!! Why is everyone so enveloped with caring about what others think of their vernacular? Why can't we all just assume that no one is out to insult anyone unless it's quite clearly obvious in their demeanor.

 

[Raixser]

Hrmm, political correctness and censorship crossed the line ages ago. People are what they are and some are more sensitive than others. Now we have to tiptoe around everything just in case something we say happens to be considered politically incorrect by the powers that be, and this is just another example of that to be honest with you.

I personally don't see anything wrong with using these terms if you're not intending them to be insulting. I will be more than willing to put my hands up in the air and admit that the word gay has slipped out a few times when a friend told me something that shocked me so much that the intellectual part of my brain froze up so that was the only word I could think of at that particular moment in time. Being bisexual I have been called gay a few times in my life but I've never taken it to heart because it was always by people I know, and usually by those with homosexual tendencies themseves.

At the same time I am always quick to correct people when they try to be polite and call me vertically challenged by telling them "No I'm just short." Because honestly in my opinion it's worse to have people talking to you using those terms when you know exactly what they were really going to say.

Personally I try to avoid using fancy or intellectual sounding words in casual conversation because it makes me feel like a snob (but that's just me I have no problem with other people doing it). As a result I sometimes end up saying gay or some other term that would get me shot by the political correctness police. But I always try not to if I know that a particular person doesn't like it. If I accidentally use that and upset someone I didn't know got offended by it then I apologise to them and am more careful in the future, unless I don't like them and am in a bad mood... but that's just because I'm spiteful and bitter.

So to sum up what probably got off topic a few times words are words, sure they have specific connotations and so on but at the end of the day they are still just words and only mean what you want them to mean not what some balding overweight guy in a suit tells you it means.

 

[Rolling Thunder]

Y'know, its funny, but blacks, gays and cripples don't get anywhere near as offended by being called "niggers, fags and cripples" as you do on their behalf. Please put your middle-class guilt away and stop exposing yourself.

1. My argument about gay being a choice was meant to illustrate why it was so abjectly pointless to discriminate against the gay community, by illustrating that it was their right, their choice, rather than condemning them by saying "U haz made ur choice tu haz fag sex, fag! U goin to hell".

2. There has not been sufficent study to demonstrate the natural or unnatural aspect of homosexuality, so making statements like 'it's unnatural', or 'it's perfectly natural' is an entirely subjective claim.

3. The issue here, JDD, is not that we object to human decency, but when people like you go about demanding the state force me to behave in a manner to sate your previously-mentioned middle class guilt. I doubt anyone here is much of a bigot, but the fact of the matter is that we all make mistakes, all make slips of the tongue, and it is not the duty of the state to punish people for them.

Secondly, by compelling a person to behave in a certain way beyond that required for the maintanance of law and order, you are subjecting them to your ethics, much as the heterosexual community has to the homosexual community. You are, in essence, doing much the same as the Victorians did in demanding that everyone adhere to their moral standards.

 

[runtheplacered]

Use of any word isn't offensive until it's put into context. I call my gay friends 'fags' all the time, and nobody finds it offensive because we're all on the same page, and they know I'm anything but a bigot. It's just said for laughs, or whatever.

On the other hand, if I meet a gay person for the first time and call him a 'fag', that'd be fairly offensive.

If you throw around words like 'straight' and 'gay' in an offensive manner, then it's offensive.

 

[guess who]

Although I find your example to be strange, I have no problem because I use the term 'straight' to describe not drinking or doing drugs. In that sence have a freind who is a straight lesbian because she is into women but dose not drink or do drugs. I also use it to describe something undiluted like a stright shot of rum.

 

[Raixser]

I have never heard of or seen this mythical "political correctness police"

Because they don't exist.

I know, was just trying to make a point but I'm tired and exams are taking their toll so that's all I could come up with.

P.S. The fashion police don't exist either so I don't see why I couldn't make these guys up.

 

[Supernovajake]

To be honest "gay" should have maintained it's meaning as happy, not homosexual. Yet I still don't see why it is offensive just as straight shouldn't be offensive to anyone. What kind of person is offended by these phrases anyway?

 

[BubbleGumSnareDrum]

"Homosexual" is more annoying and offensive than simply saying "gay." None of the gay people I have met are offended by the word "gay," and they seem to be more offended because of the people you hear using the word "homosexual" belong to the anti-gay religious right, a group of people I have difficulty understanding.

Furthermore, saying "African American" is more racist in my eyes than just saying "black," because it should be obvious to everyone that not all black people come from Africa.

 

[ChaosTheory3133]

I suppose in a sense it could be considered offensive. Part of me wants to say that trying to be politically correct on all aspects is near impossible. Part of me says that its no excuse for ignorance.

I'd say put yourself in their frame of mind or as close to it as possible. I'd say ask someone who is gay, but that would be just one gay person's opinion. Make the decision for yourself.

 

[guess who]

"Homosexual" communicates formulity and has connotations with the old school times when being gay was seen as a mental illness. Using the phrase "homosexual" instead of gay suggests a degree of pious selfrighteousness which regards homosexuality as a perversion.

CaptainEgypt got it spot on with his African American analogy.

I have to dissagree with you and with the African [natinality] analogy, I think of both as just terms to be used clinically and without judgment

 

[Rolling Thunder]

@JDD:

Spoiler: argument

I'm projecting? You sir, have assumed that all persons who use the term gay as a negative are homophobes and bigots, whom regard homosexuals as scum of the earth, and in short than anyone against you is a vicious, hypocritical bastard who secretly despises homosexuals.

Secondly, please read the entirity of my argument rather than cherry-picking.

Thirdly, I meant a study on humans.

You sir, may go to the devil.

 

[Railu]

In my every day speech I avoid using the word "gay" to describe something bad or weird because I find it immature and a rather offensive towards homosexuals, but the other day I had a realization. I still use the word straight. I don't mean to describe something without curves or turns of course, but rather to describe something that is fine, or ok. For example, if somebody were to offer me a glass of water but I wasn't thirsty, I might say "nah, I'm straight, thanks." Is this just as offensive? By using the word straight to describe something that is ok, or does not need and adjustment am I implying that gay people are not ok and need to be changed? What do the fine minds at the escapist think of this? Is using the word straight in that context offensive to gay people, or am I just thinking about this too much?

THIS. This is what's wrong with political correctness.

Controlling people's minds and thoughts through fear. You're afraid of being called a homophobe, a racist, a sexist, etc. People hate labels so now we have to come up with another way to describe you. Only problem is... IT'S ANOTHER LABEL.

"I prefer to be called "

Well, I prefer to be called Lord of the Bee People. Why aren't you calling me that? You're a BEE-PEOPLE-PHOBE!

Who cares? You're gay, you're gay. You're straight, you're straight. People think they have it in their rights to not be offended by anything. Hate to break it to you, but no, you don't. I'm offended by political correctness, but you don't see anyone giving me sympathy and apologizing for it.

 

[Majithicus]

Not necessarily. If I say "That Japanese guy from Star Trek is gay" It is perfectly obvious what I mean. If I say "Dude, Star Trek is totally gay" it is also perfectly obvious that I don't mean the show is homosexual and wants to sodomize Battlstar Galactica. Same word, 2 completely different meanings. I can dig it, it isn't that complicated.

So walking around in skin-tight spandex and saying "Go down below and check on the rocket boosters" isn't homosexual?